November 1, 2025
By Anamati Inyang | RISMADAR Voice Media
The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned Bashir Bello Ibrahim, a former Kaduna State government contractor and Chief Executive Officer of Formal Act Legacy Limited, before Justice A. M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna over alleged fraud involving N111 million.
He was docked on a seven count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, advance fee fraud, and money laundering.
One of the charges reads:
“That you, Bashir Ibrahim Bello (being Managing Director of Formal Act Legacy Limited) and Formal Act Legacy Limited, sometime in July 2024 at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, conspired between yourselves to commit a felony, to wit: obtaining the sum of N37,300,000 (Thirty Seven Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira only) under false pretence, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No.14 of 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Another charge reads:
“That you, Bashir Ibrahim Bello (being Managing Director of Formal Act Legacy Limited) and Formal Act Legacy Limited, sometime in the month of July 2024 at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, conspired to commit an offence to wit: money laundering and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 21(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and punishable under Section 18(3) and (4) of the same Act.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Following his plea, prosecuting counsel Fortune Amina I. Asemebo requested a trial date, while defence counsel M. T. Mohammed moved a motion for the hearing of the defendant’s bail application.
Justice Aikawa, however, declined to hear the bail application and ordered that the defendant be remanded in a Correctional Centre pending the hearing of his bail.
According to the petitioner, he was introduced to the defendant in 2024 by three individuals; Josephine Washima, Mamuda Nyelong, and Nalara Tanimu, who presented themselves as contract facilitators. They allegedly convinced him that the defendant, acting as a supposed United Nations Sub African Regional Coordinator, would award him contracts for the construction of solar powered boreholes across the North East.
The petitioner said he paid N37,300,000 as a facilitation fee into Washima’s bank account, after which he was issued five notification letters of award for the drilling of 20 solar powered boreholes.
He further stated that he executed one slot of the supposed contract; drilling four solar powered boreholes behind Specialist School, Sabon Abuja Jahun, Nurses Quarters, and Water Board Quarters, all in Karin Madaki, Bauchi State but was not paid.
He later discovered that the contracts were fake and subsequently reported the matter to the EFCC.
